Jump around

Connor loves to jump in his jumperoo!

Connor can roll

Connor rolled over from his back to his stomach yesterday! Hooray for Connor. When I took him to the doctor last week he still had not rolled from his belly to his back, but the doctor said he just doesn't want to because he sits up enough that he should be able to. I could not get his complete roll on video, but I did get this little clip and you can see that he can do it. (check out those chunky legs!! too cute!!)

Anniversary surprise

Our anniversary is August 3 (17yrs) and Tim surprised me with a trip for two to St. Thomas. We have very generous friends who are watching our children while we are gone. We are leaving early Friday morning and coming home late Monday night. We are so excited! You can pray that we have good weather, safe travels, etc., but most importantly pray for those watching our children! Nathan and Dawn will be taking care of Zander, Doug and Kristin will be taking care of Connor, and Steven and Cindy will be taking care of Ellie. Ellie is very excited about staying with the Hollemans and being able to play with Lucas. She is counting down the days. She keeps saying "after this night and the next night I get to play with Lucas." We are so excited about being able to get away for a few days! Thank you everyone for taking care of our children and making this possible for us!! and thank you sweety for thinking of this and arranging it all!!!

Answered Prayer

Thank you Lord, we sold our home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got an offer today on our house and we accpeted it!! The buyer does not have another house to sell, does not want any closing costs or anyting (he wants the pot rack and the refrigerator which he can have). The offer came in close to our asking price. It was a good offer.
So the packing begins. We only have two weekends to find a place to live and pack and move. The buyer wants to close on Aug 29th and I will be gone the weekend before (Aug 23-25) at my doctors appointment in Florida. So we will need to start moving the weekend before. Since we are going to be gone this weekend, that leave two weekends. We will be very busy. Pray for our sanity!

Growing boys

The boys had their check-up yesterday. The doctor was surprised at how big they are getting. She said she didn't expect to see 11wk preemie's gain so much weight so quickly. They are "catching" up very quickly. Here's the stats:

Connor: weight- 17 lbs 2oz, height 24 1/2 inches

Zander: weight- 16 lbs 15oz, height- 24 3/4 inch

Tim's camping trip

Last weekend Tim went camping with other men from our church. It sounded like they had a good time. Here are some photos of what they did. (yes that is Tim). They rented inflatable kayak's and went down the Nantahala River in the North Carolina mountains.

Zander rolls over

As promised a long time ago, here is video of Zander rolling over. So Connor won't feel left out, I have also attached a video of him.

Zander's first laugh

Here is the first time Zander has laughed. You have to listen close because it is right at the begining and then Ellie laughs. Tim was playing with him when he did it.

Cardboard Testimonies

4th of July

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

(after you click on the one below, click on the match and light the firworks for the picture slide show to start)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

For the 4th of July we went with the Gibsons to Birkdale where they had activities for the kids. The kids made noise makers for the parade and got "tatoos". We went to lunch, then went back to the Gibsons and set the slide up. Ellie actually had a lot of fun playing with it. She even went down the big slide several times!! We told her she was very brave. Maybe the swim lessons are helping her. Ellie has so much fun playing with Piper and Gracie. We were going to see the fireworks, but it rained (with lightning and thunder) so we decided not to go and instead we watched them on t.v.

Happy Birthday Tami

Happy Birthday to a great sister-in-law and a wonderful aunt. It has been such a joy to get to know her over the years. Her love for God is so evident in her life. She has such a servant's heart and she truly loves and cares for others. I am so glad she is our children's aunt. She is such a good example to Ellie and I know she will be to the boys as well. Ellie has so much fun with auntie Tami and she gets so excited when she comes for visits.
We love you Tami, Happy Birthday!

1st Dentist trip

This is Ellie's first dentist trip. What a disaster!!!! (These pictures do not show how bad it was). Ellie had been crying the past couple of days saying that her tooth hurt. So, I called a dentist and got her an appointment before the 4th holiday. They needed to take x-rays because the dentist could not see anything that would cause her pain in the spot she was complaining about. After 30 minutes of screaming and crying and refusing to cooperate (even a little hitting and kicking), they asked if we would allow them to restrain her so they could get the photos (which they really needed). So they brought out a stretcher and strapped her arms, legs, and then wrapped the blanket around her, then they had to use a tool to pry her mouth open. Tim tried holding her, showing her how he did an x-ray, he put one in his mouth, (she didn't even have to bite down on it, they just wanted to hold it near the tooth), they let her hold one and put it in her mouth, but she still refused to cooperate. I can't beleive we had to go through so much and then after it was all over she said her tooth didn't hurt anymore. And they didn't see anything on the x-ray that would cause concern. They said her teeth looked great. On the way out she saw a girl getting her teeth cleaned and she said "look mommy, she is not crying." She was also excited because they had a tooth brush like the one Aunt Tami uses. I asked her if she wanted them to use that on her and she said yes. So I scheduled a cleaning for her in August and I am going to get some books at the library about going to the dentist, so stay tuned...